What Makes A Conman, A Conman
by AFictionalWriter
Summary: What is it that makes a great conman, a great conman- or, rather, what makes Neal Caffrey, Neal Caffrey?
1. His Fedora Hat

Author's Note: I almost put this as a new chapter in From One Prison to Another, but I felt that it needed a series of its own, and it also refers to scenes throughout the entire first season instead of just the first episode. This is almost like a list of what makes Neal, Neal. As the first part of the series, it is called "His Fedora Hat," an item that has become a signature Neal Caffrey accessory during the first season.

Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar, nor am I making any profit off of this.

~oOoOoOo~

As a conman, appearance is everything. Your clothes, hair style, body language, the way you walk, everything about how you look can make or break a deal within mere seconds. If you wanted a certain five hundred million famous Goya painting owned by a presitgious private collector, were you just going to walk in from the street wearing overalls and a Budweiser cap and attempt to convince him you're an art dealer, or were you going to saunter up wearing a Devore suit, black fedora hat, expensive cuff links and tie clip, looking like you owned the world? Yes, you would choose the Devore. If a conman was smart he'd choose the Devore. And Neal Caffrey's a smart man.

Widely known as one of the most intelligent conmen in the world, Neal Caffrey didn't simply make it that far on just his big brain. A conman could be the smartest guy in the world, smarter than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking put together, but if he didn't look smart then how would other people know it?

There's a certain reason why nerds and geeks look like nerds and geeks.

The thing about being a conman, though, and weasling his way into a situation that may require him to change his personality, appearance or entire identity within the span of a few years, months or even minutes is that he needs the right outfit for the job. If you needed to convince a murdering ancient Chinese art thief that you could help here out, you'd wear the Devore suit to make her believe that you knew what you were talking about; if you needed to get a travel agent with a son to give you confidential, personal information on another criminal, you'd ruffle up your hair and mess up your shirt to make her believe you were in a real hurry.

But other than the ever constant need to turn into someone in the blink of an eye, Neal chose the Devore suit mainly because it was fashion. Clothes could make a self-conscious man a confident one, a less intelligent man more intelligent than anyone else in the room. And a Devore suit, something that could never truly go out of style in his opinion, was a piece of fashion that boosted his ego. It helped to make him the charming, intelligent ex-con that he was.

If one ever walked up to the ex-con, and asked him curiously why he wore a fedora hat with his suits every day, Neal would just smile his charming smile, give a tilt of said head accessory and appropriately walk off, leaving them to wonder. His fedora hat wasn't an accessory used to make Neal into another person. It was an accessory used to make Neal, Neal.

~oOoOoOo~

My information on the cases in the middle of the chapter may be a little off. I haven't re-watched the shows yet to know everything by heart, and this came out a little shorter than I intended, but I felt it was a good start to a new story line. To see the other chapters I plan to post in this story, you can look on my profile. 


	2. His Smile

Author's Note: Sorry for not posting more chapters sooner. I'd been focused on my other story and going to California, so I never got enough time to come up with something suitable for the next chapter. Promise I'll post more sooner =-) This chapter has a little reference at the end of the last season one episode, "Out of the Box."

Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar, nor am I making any profit off of this.

~oOoOoOo~

A conman's smile, if charming and bright enough, can help to lull any person into a sense of security and friendliness while in the vicinity of a person they otherwise would not feel so secure and friendly towards.

Neal Caffrey's smile, both charming and bright, is often used as a weapon against unsuspecting people, mostly women. Depending on the smile used, people can end up feeling pity, humor, or a surprising amount of love and kindness towards the con.

Sometimes his smile was used to hide what he was feeling. When he thought about Kate, when he had thought Peter was lying to him, or whenever he began to feel depressed, or hated himself, and someone noticed he'd simply plaster a smile onto his face and tell them he was fine.

Those smiles were often used with small lies. Not the type of lies that got him into fortified vaults and out of maximum-security prisons, but the ones people used every day. These were lies that no one lost any sleep over. Telling a person you didn't like you were busy on Friday when you actually weren't, claiming not to have broken something when you were younger and too scared to get into trouble, saying you felt sick just so you could get out of class – these lies were used every single day, by almost everyone. There wasn't a person who hadn't told a lie, and those that hadn't were either fooling themselves or had lived away from other human beings under a rock somewhere.

So Neal thought that, if everyone else told lies, then his lies were acceptable, despite the fact that he often used his to do illegal acts.

And Neal lied with a smile. His big, bright, charming smile that no one could resist or avoid falling for. He almost always got away with it, too, mainly because everyone was focused on the smile on his face instead of the lies coming out between his perfect teeth.

Yes, a conman's smile could help him through a lot of things. But what does a conman do when the reason he kept plastering a smile on his face is gone, when everything he had worked towards for the past year was taken away right before his eyes and he could do nothing about it?

What does he do when he doesn't want to smile anymore?

~oOoOoOo~

I apologize for this chapter being so short. I'll try to make up for it next chapter. Oh yeah, and for anyone that's wondering and hasn't heard yet, the season two premiere is on Tuesday, July 13th at 9 p.m. / 8 p.m. central, on the USA channel. Just thought I'd remind everyone =-)


	3. His Charm

Author's Note: Possibly one of his biggest weapons, charm has helped Neal get through a lot of difficult situations – mostly dealing with those involving women.

Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar, nor am I making any profit off of this.

~oOoOoOo~

Oftentimes throughout Neal's criminal career, he had to wheedle his way into various mansions, security vaults and other places normally blocked off from the public. This generally flowed over to when he began working for the FBI, although some things were different from before he went to prison: one, he had back-up in case things turned sour, and two, that back-up was actually capable of backing him up.

It wasn't the kind of back-up that meant Moz hiding a hundred yards away consistently yelling at Neal through his earwig about how stupid this whole thing was and to get the hell out of there before he got shot.

No, this kind of back-up meant armed federal agents sitting in a van a _couple_ yards away listening and watching everything that was going on – without yelling at him through an earwig.

But back-up was back-up – they weren't involved in the frontline work until it was time to get out their arrest warrants and handcuffs. It was usually up to Neal to get in and out before anyone figured out he wasn't who he said he was.

Neal's biggest weapon for doing this was his charm, something he had cultivated and adapted to suit his needs. Used for numerous problems, or sometimes just when he wanted to get his check lowered at an expensive restaurant or get out of having to show his I.D. to a security guard, Neal's charm could get him in and out of everything.

One of the more personal reasons of when Neal had used his inexplicable charm on someone happened to be when he first met June. A sweet, generous and caring woman, Neal didn't have to use as much charm as he had to on other people, but he did use enough to convince her to let him live in her empty apartment. And, of course, there was Elizabeth – a federal agent's wife surely wouldn't have been so willing to let an art thief into her home, no matter how open-minded and nice she might be.

On the job, however, Neal turned up the charm so much that not even the holiest god would deny him a mere slap on the wrist for his sins. Vacation agents, wine distillers, gangsters and hundreds of other people that he came across when he was at work became victims of his bright smile and perfect remarks.

There was one young woman that had been in what may be characterized as shock for three hours after she had a conversation with Neal, back when he was first starting out as a conman. Neal had been working on getting into a well-known museum in France. He was after a Rembrandt painting that the museum was holding in the back for safe keeping until it was moved to Holland. The young woman, who was shy, went to church and never really hung out with boys, was so shocked with everything about Neal that, for the next few hours after he had successfully persuaded her to let him look in the backroom for something (she could never remember what afterwards), she couldn't say a coherent sentence.

Neal knew this, of course. After he stole the painting, he followed the police reports on their investigation of the stolen item – much like he did for every precious item he stole, to make sure he could be one step ahead of the police. His already large ego had soared when he read the sentence, "Receptionist too shocked to remember anything about thief."

He completely ignored the word "thief" and focused instead on the words "too shocked to remember anything." He took this as a sign that his charm was something people in general couldn't handle, and that it set him apart from other conmen. Neal hadn't heard of a conman being so charming a young woman he talked to couldn't speak for three hours.

Such subtle accomplishments, along with his knowing how handsome and charming he could be, made him into of one of a few special conmen – those who had a big ego, but could also not have one when they chose.


End file.
